Mobile radio host celebrates 5,000th broadcast of signature show

For longtime Gulf Coast radio personality, five years has always felt like a pivotal measure of time.

"I remember when I first started in radio, I met a guy who had been in radio five years," he says. "I wanted be in radio so bad. I thought, 'FIVE YEARS! Wow. What would it be like to be in it for FIVE YEARS?!'"

Now, with more than three decades in radio in Mobile alone, Sirten is preparing for the 5,000th installment of his weeknight program, "Radio Avalon". Fans of the beloved host are invited to join him and a long list of musical guests to celebrate the milestone at Veet's Bar in downtown Mobile.

Sirten arrived in Mobile radio in 1984, helping to launch 92.1 The ZEW, a newly-minted safe haven for music lovers in the region who were searching for a more progressive sound.

"The unusual thing for me is I lived in 14 cities before this, and I had no inkling that I might stay in Mobile," he says. "It was just another stop on the tour."

Sirten's "Sunday Jazz Brunch" was a popular mainstay on the station a decade, but the station's closure in 1994 led Sirten to look for opportunity elsewhere.

"It's kind of like how people remember what they were doing when Kennedy was assassinated. In Mobile, there is a certain amount of people who remember what they were doing when 92ZEW was gone."

At his new radio home, Sirten asked to spin a weekday program off from his weekend show, proposing that a show reminiscent of 92ZEW could fill the void sorely missed by devoted fans of his former station. Originally, Sirten got the show approved by the owner with the title "Catt's Magical Music Tour". Speaking with the program director, however, Sirten decided on the name "Radio Avalon" as a dedication to the 1982 Roxy Music song "Avalon".

"I always like the imagery of that song. It was classy. It had a rhythm to it. It personified what I wanted the program to sound like," he says.

"When I told him the name, the program director said, 'Now, why would you want to name a jazz program after Frankie Avalon?'" Sirten says laughing.

In 1997, the call letters WZEW would return to serve the Gulf Coast under new management. Eventually Sirten would return to 92ZEW and "Radio Avalon" would find a home at the station that inspired its sound.

"I can tell you that 'Radio Avalon' sounds a lot different now than it did five years ago. It certainly sounds different than it did (even) two years ago. I'm pretty sure it's going to sound different two years from now - knock on wood. It's all evolution."

Today, Sirten and "Radio Avalon" remain a critical fixture in the musical identity of the Gulf Coast, serving fans in Mississippi and Florida, as well as his Mobile Bay home. Sirten credits Mobile's distinct taste in eclectic sounds for his ability to find a niche within the market.

"Even large cities have not had the exposure to music that Mobile has," he says. "When 92ZEW came on the air in 1984, there were only five radio stations in the country like 92ZEW. This was the only one in the south. It was the only one in a small market. They were in Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Austin."

At the time, Sirten attributes a history of unsavory music promoters for making Mobile a dead zone for live acts on tour. As a result venues in New Orleans and Pensacola began to increase their pull from other areas in the Gulf Coast, Sirten says. In these days, radio played a larger influence to music fans in and around Mobile, inspiring a emphasis on apprecation for alternative sounds.

That exposure to a vast palate of artists had a profound influence on the crop of musicians who spent their formative years with dials fixed on 92ZEW, Sirten says.

"There's such a fusion of music here. I have friends who weren't Allman Brothers fans. They listened to Tower of Power, Blood Sweat & Tears and Earth Wind & Fire. All of that music has infused itself within 'Americana' (Mobile's folk singer-songwriter music tradition). You'll hear local 'Americana' musicians do albums, and they'll have horn sections on them. I think (those outisde influences are) where it all comes from. Mobile is a great, big gumbo of music."

"What we're seeing now is Mobile music go from a banjo, mandolin sound into being more poppy," Sirten says, emphasizing that the burgeoning generation of local performers are tapping into a new spirit. "It's going to go to something more polished and something more accessible."

Although it seems his influence has helped bring the local music scene a long way in the years since his arrival in Mobile, Sirten says he still finds excitement in the new ways he can push the envelope.

"I have to tell ya, there is a great sense of gratitude of being in the position of being at the only place in the world where you could hear Pavaratti and James Brown together on the radio," Sirten says. "My job is to find music and say, 'Hey, listen to this. How would you know if you like it, if you never got a chance to hear it?' It turns out that there is a lot of music people like that they'd never get a chance to listen to on 'corporate radio.' I think I'm fortunate, just to be (in this position)."

On the dawn of his 5,000th episode of "Radio Avalon", Sirten doesn't have much time to look back. Fittingly the man whose made his career on the cutting edge, is already looking five years ahead for insight and inspiration.

"I feel very confident that the music that we are going to be listening to in five years is being incubated now. Some place. Somewhere. Maybe in somebody's bedroom - somebody's playing on their computer. Who knows? That's the exciting part of it. As far as, for me, and 'Radio Avalon', my hope is to be a part of finding that music and exposing it."

The 5,000th episode of "Radio Avalon" will be recorded live at Veet's Bar on 66 South Royal Street in downtown Mobile on Monday night. The show is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The recording will air on Thursday night to commemorate Sirten's huge milestone. A $10 cover will be collected and the door. Proceeds will be donated to the advertising fund for the episode.